Pakistan strikes Kabul hours after Afghanistan attack on border troops | Afghanistan

An Afghan government spokesman said Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday; This was hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the unstable neighbors that has left a Qatar-brokered ceasefire looking increasingly shaky.

At least three explosions were heard in Kabul, but no information has yet been given about the exact location of the attacks or possible casualties in Afghanistan’s capital.

Pakistani interior minister Muhsin Naqvi said on Friday that the attacks on Afghanistan were an “appropriate response”.

“Pakistani armed forces have given an appropriate response to the open aggression of the Afghan Taliban,” Naqvi said hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban government said was retaliation for earlier deadly airstrikes.

Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan also carried out airstrikes in Kandahar in the south and Paktian province in the southeast.

Afghanistan claimed that its army launched an attack on Pakistan across the border and captured more than a dozen Pakistani military posts late on Thursday in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday.

Describing last Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harboring in the region, the Pakistani government said Thursday’s Afghan attack was unprovoked and rejected claims that army outposts had been captured.

The 2,611 km long border of the two countries is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan does not officially recognize.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense said that 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the attack on Thursday, some of their bodies were taken to Afghanistan, and some were captured alive. He put his own losses at eight dead and 11 wounded. The ministry said that 19 outposts and two bases belonging to the Pakistani army were destroyed and the clashes ended at midnight, about four hours after the attack began.

However, Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that the number of Pakistani soldiers killed was two and three were injured. He said 36 Afghan fighters were reported killed.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.

Qureshi Badlon, head of the Torkham Information and Public Awareness Board, said Afghan authorities evacuated a refugee camp near the Torkham border gate after many refugees were injured. The Ministry of Defense said that 13 civilians, including women and children, were injured in the missile attack on the camp.

Local police said residents on the Pakistani side of the border were also evacuated to safer areas, while some Afghan refugees waiting to return to Afghanistan were also moved to safe areas. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on immigrants in October 2023, deporting hundreds of thousands of people.

Pakistani police said mortars fired from Afghanistan landed in nearby villages, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.

“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” Pakistan’s information ministry said in a post on X. he said.

Tensions have been high between the two neighbors for months, with dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants killed in deadly border clashes in October. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. At that time, Islamabad launched attacks deep into Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.

The ceasefire between the two countries, brokered by Qatar, has largely continued, but the two sides still occasionally exchange fire across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to reach a formal agreement.